...from a time so long past as to be indefinite in history or tradition...

 What do you mean...  a little Green Man...?

Lots of people have asked the Dollmaker that very question.

they ask.. "This Green Man Doll... just what is he about?"

(The Dollmaker is obliged to explain less frequently now,

since more people seem to know who Green Man is these days...)

{...an interesting sign of the times}

... be that as it may, the Dollmaker shall now answer the question, her way...

the question being...

Who is Green Man?

SO...  Once upon a time, on Earth...

there lived a strange race of Ancient Earthlings

who had Vines growing from their mouths and noses....

LOL. Just kidding.

They certainly didn't have vines growing out of their mouths and noses! How absurd!

These Ancients were... ordinary humans... like you and me...

Except that they were GREEN!

LOL. Just kidding.

No, no, they weren't green. 

Okay, really now, Once upon a Time,

there lived an ancient race of ordinary people who were very into

the GREENERY....

This group of ancient earthlings observed that, by mid-winter, all the leaves had fallen from the trees,

yet this did not mean that these trees were dead.

On the contrary, the trees grew more leaves again in the Springtime.

When the time was right, the trees came back to life.

(Sound familiar, self-evident, even simplistic?) 

Right. But it wasn't just the trees- the bushes and shrubs grew new leaves again too,

 the grass came back from dried-up husks,

and the flowers popped out in renewed splendor-

all of which fairly reliably led to fruiting, harvesting and eating...

and indeed, folks back then made eating a priority!

Generally speaking, to this day we still feel strongly about eating.

So Nature absolutely awed the simple folk of ancient times-

they really marveled at the behavior of the Greenery. 

They watched throughout the winter

and waited for the Greenery to come back each year

and they saw it as miraculous and darn near religious when the Green did come back.

And each year in the Springtime... they called it-

The Return of the Green.

( I believe I mentioned they were simple folk.)

The color GREEN

symbolized new growth...a new beginning...a fresh start...new life...food.

And the Return of the Green was a reason to party.

So, the simple Green-loving people of olden days would hold these wondrous festivals

 to celebrate the Springtime and the Return of the Greenery,

during which they danced and frolicked about and found ingenious ways

to entice the Greenery to flourish.

Yes, friends, they did think that they could entice the Greenery to flourish, 

and some of you know that this is definitely

 Another story...

...for now let us just say that since 

the GREENERY was the Theme of the Festivities,

someone had to REPRESENT the GREENERY in the PARADE! 

 Back in those days, the men were the actors;

they even played the parts of women onstage, so of course it was a man

who got to wear the costume made of leaves and branches

and play the part of the GREENERY in the parade,

waving to the rabble-rousing crowd while perched on a festively adorned donkey

who also wore a matching costume of green and leafy branches.

The guy impersonating the Greenery became known as

the GREEN MAN.

(LOL!  Yes, this Tradition lives on, even today!)

Now, then.

During these ceremonies, there was much gratitude expressed amongst the Ancients

to the GREENERY for the wine which made philosophers of a great many of them...

and when these Philosophical Elders got together

to contemplate the matter of the cyclical Greening, it struck the ones still standing

that the man on the back of the donkey pretending to be a GREEN MAN,

really was a GREEN MAN! 

hmmmm....

It took centuries to unravel what these wise elders meant...

but evidently the philosophers of old intuited that

the individual representing the SACRED GREENERY

had the same regenerative properties within himself as the plants he was honoring-

They understood that Mankind can be said to be... well, green.

In other words, Self-Renewable. Capable of new growth.

For most people, a typical example of Self-Restoration happens

during our "dormant" phase- during sleep each night.

We wake up and we are renewed!

.....................

Artists who could understand the philosophy of the day strove to preserve these blinding realizations

in painting and sculpture.

They got to work carving the Green Man image into stone walls

and into massive wooden doors. 

Oftentimes artists would depict a masculine face surrounded by leaves,

sometimes with vines twirling into or around the mouth,

sometimes with  rather odd expressions on the face...

Tourists coming across these images might wonder

what sort of half-plant half-human creatures

these ancient artists were striving to represent -

...but scholars such as Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell

have found the GREENMAN images fascinating

and have written volumes describing Greenman as

an ARCHETYPE

...which means: A Universal Truth

able to be experienced by any Human Being of any race or nationality

at any time period throughout endless Time...

 wow.

So, into these lofty realms... enters... yours truly,

the Dollmaker. 

She who is always on the lookout

for unique and powerful, new and meaningful Imagery for her Dollmaking... 

 hmmmmmm, what's this?

 Green, leafy and symbolic... oh yeah, got to make HIM!

Consequently, savvy, informed gentlemen who come a-shopping

at the Wee Peeple Doll Arte Gallery

will often select a Greenman Doll, realizing that

"SELF-RENEWAL" 

applies to emotional and spiritual renewal

(AND relationship renewal) as much as it applies

 to the regeneration of fingernails and leaves.

hmmmm!

So, the answer to the question,

"Who is the Green Man?"

LEAVEs us... (hee hee)...

 gazing upon our own reflections in the mirror...

however...

There are times when the legendary Greenman appears

 in the trees sometimes... if we look carefully....  

we MIGHT be able to see him- 

 the Greenman...

not the doll, not the archetype, not the parade-walker, but the legend,

cast of shadows, stems, leaves and light

shifting forward and backwards in a slight breeze...

 ...watch for him.